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IWC Schaffhausen’s Portugieser Eternal Calendar won the Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix at the 2024 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) awards ceremony on 13 November 2024. The award’s top honor went to a platinum-cased perpetual calendar whose defining mechanical distinction is a 400-year gear designed to account for century years that are not leap years.
What the GPHG award recognizes
The Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix is the headline prize among the GPHG’s annual awards. In its 13 November 2024 announcement, GPHG said the ceremony presented 21 prizes. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar was also listed among the Calendar and Astronomy nominees; GPHG rules describe that category as covering mechanical watches with calendar or astronomical complications. The award announcement and category context are available from GPHG’s 2024 ceremony announcement and its 2024 competition materials.
GPHG reported that 90 nominated watches, including 20 winners, were exhibited at Geneva’s Musée Rath through 17 November 2024. The announcement also noted that the Special Jury Prize went to artisanal watch casemaker Jean-Pierre Hagmann, with Nick Foulkes serving as chair of the 2024 jury.
What makes this a secular perpetual calendar
GPHG describes this model as IWC’s first secular perpetual calendar. A conventional perpetual calendar tracks the familiar four-year leap-year cycle; the Gregorian calendar also omits leap days in century years unless those years are divisible by 400. That exception is why 2100 will not be a leap year.
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The 400-year gear
According to GPHG’s official model entry, the calendar adds a gear that completes one revolution every 400 years and is designed to skip three leap years during that cycle. GPHG says the mechanism’s first relevant century-year exception arrives in 2100. The entry says the calendar calculates correctly through at least 3999; it also notes that no official decision has yet been made on whether 4000 will be a leap year.
How it is operated
GPHG says the secular calendar retains the synchronized display design of IWC’s regular perpetual calendar, with the indications advanced using a single crown. This is a description of the listed watch’s mechanism, not an independent test of its long-term operation.
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Specifications of reference IW505701
These figures and materials come from GPHG’s model record for reference IW505701, which lists the launch date as April 2024.
| Specification | GPHG-listed detail |
|---|---|
| Case | Platinum; 44.4 mm diameter and 15 mm thick |
| Water resistance | 50 m |
| Movement | Self-winding mechanical, IWC-manufactured caliber 52640 |
| Winding and reserve | Pellaton winding system; two barrels; 168 hours (seven days) of power reserve |
| Frequency | 28,800 vibrations per hour |
| Functions | Hours, minutes, seconds, date, day, month, year, moon phases, power reserve indicator and perpetual calendar |
| Dial, crystal and strap | Lacquered glass dial; double box-glass sapphire crystals; leather strap |
| Clasp | Folding buckle |
The Double Moon claim and the glass dial
Moon-phase indication
GPHG’s description says the Double Moon display uses a titanium base disc with two blue dots and a glass disc rotating above it. It gives a theoretical adjustment interval of 45 million years. That is the published account’s theoretical precision claim, not a measured result independently verified here.
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Dial construction
The entry describes a glass dial made through a multistage process: the underside of the glass is frosted and lacquered, separately machined and polished subdials are placed on a base plate, and printing and hand-mounted appliques are added. GPHG also lists double box-glass sapphire crystals.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the distinction matters
The award recognizes the watch as the GPHG’s 2024 Aiguille d’Or winner; it does not, by itself, establish a comparative ranking against every perpetual calendar or confirm performance through centuries of use. The clearest point of mechanical distinction in GPHG’s account is the calendar’s additional 400-year cycle, aimed at the Gregorian century-year exceptions. The watch’s size, platinum case, seven-day reserve and elaborate moon display are separate, concrete characteristics rather than evidence of a broader performance verdict.
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